We have just announced the results of our 2013 author survey on open access, with over 8,000 respondents from across Wiley’s journal portfolio. The desire of authors to publish in high-quality, respected journals with a good Impact Factor remains consistent with our 2012 open access survey findings. However, the 2013 survey sheds new light on differences between early career researchers (which we define as respondents between the ages of 26-44 with less than 15 years of research experience) and more established colleagues in their opinions on quality and licenses, and the funding available to them.

The number of Wiley authors who have published an open access article has almost doubled since 2012, up to 59% from 32%. Supporting this trend, authors are reporting a larger percentage of research funding to publish open access compared with last year. Over half of responding authors received grant funding (24% full funding, 29% partial funding) to cover Article Publication Charges (APCs), an increase of 43% from 2012. 68% of funded authors publish their work open access, but for those who chose not to, the most prominent reasons were concerns about the perceived quality and profile of open access publications.

Considerable differences emerge between early career professionals and more established colleagues when comparing funding and payments for APCs. Early career professionals were significantly more likely to have APCs paid for by funders or institutions and were far less likely to pay out of their own funds than respondents over the age of 45 with more than 15 years of experience. Whether this is indicative of a specific approach from funders or simply down to early career researchers having fewer personal funds is unclear. Read more.